3/29/11 Healing at Home

Joe is so happy to be home and the healing of the Fungal Pneumonia seems to be making progress. It has been good for me too since I am able to sleep late without Joe waking me early up the studio apartment with turning the TV on and moving about. One forgets how good it is to be in your own bed with the right lighting, quietness, your own sheets and pillows. It seems to enhance my dreaming where I escape into a fantasy world.

On Sunday Joe had been up for two hours before me. He was in the garage cleaning my tires and front bumper from the collage of smashed bugs. I was dressed for church. I asked Joe if he was going with me and he said that he was not up to it. I requested in sweet way that I really would like him to go to church with me that it would mean so much to me. He changed his mind and got dressed for church. He looked so handsome when he came down the stairs with his dress slacks, nicely pressed shirt and his dark blue double breasted sports coat. I really love his fuzzy white hair which is starting to get some length to it on the sides. We got to church about 10:45AM where we were the designated greeters but I had Joe go ahead and sit down in one of the pews since he could not stand that long nor shake hands. It was great being a greeter this past Sunday where everyone could see that we were back among the congregation. I was able to thank as many as I could for their prayers that have helped Joe and me make his journey with all its twists and turns.

After church I drove us up to Dawsonville where Joe's younger sister, Donna, lives with her husband, Rick. The drive takes about an hour which is a piece of cake for me these days. I find driving to be a stress reliever for me. We arrived at 2PM and were delighted to also see Jessie, Joe's niece, with her two pretty young girls whom we love. Donna cooked some of Joe's favorite dishes. He craves her great Mac'N'Cheese which is always good. She also had her famous spinach salad that Joe enjoys. Along with that she had fresh sliced cucumbers in vinegar, black eyed peas and meat loaf. We all sat at the same table and shared family news and future plans. For dessert Donna made a chocolate pie that Joe said was delicious. I had fresh strawberries. NASCAR was on TV and Rick explained to us some of the details of racing since we do not follow that sport. We got home about 6PM where I gave Joe the ERAXIS IV which I have been doing early each evening. It does get easier and easier though tonight I cut the IV bag with the scissors trying to taking it out of its sealed bag thus that bag went into the trash unfortunately.

Monday morning started with a blood draw at Winship at Emory which was overflowing with people. Joe's appointment was at 9am and the blood was finally drawn at 10AM. Up to the second floor we headed waiting for the blood results to come in with anticipation so Jessica. Neely, the PA, could examine Joe and review the blood counts. She was astonished to find that Joe's spleen had shrunk down to 9cm which is fantastic. The blood results improved dramatically from the last two tests which I are below.

NORMAL RANGE

WBC	4.0	11.0
RBC	4.5	6.0
HGB	14.0	18.0
HCT	40.0	54.0
Platelets	140.0	440.0

.................... 3/28/11..........3/21/11................. 3/14/11.............................3/8/11
WBC..............(3.1)............... (8.1)......................( 33.7).............................( 62.7)
RBC...............(4.63)............( 4.27)....................( 4.34 )............................(3.85 )
HGB...............(13.9)............(12.9 ).....................(12.9 )..............................(11.6)
HCT...............(45.7)............( 41.2).....................( 40.5 ).............................(35.9)
PLT................(156)...............( 68).......................( 48 )................................(62 )

When I got home, I scanned the report and sent it to Dr. Romaguera at MDACC as well as letting him know that starting on Sunday, Joe's cough subsided a large amount. He was pleased to hear that and see that the red blood counts had all improved. He was very concerned about the drop in the White Blood Cells and the Neutrophils 33% into the low range which means Joe is susceptible to infections. He warned me that if Joe were to get a fever over 100.5 that I should take him to the ER to have them give him an IV of antibiotics. His instructions included to have Joe's blood tested again on Thursday and to give Joe only one shot of neupogin tonight since Joe's white blood counts usually jump up so substantially.

I emailed Jessica at Winship at Emory to schedule a follow up CBC on Thursday morning which is set for 10 AM. She was sweet enough to have Joe's blood taken on the 2nd floor where there are no crowds or unreasonable waiting times.

Today was the day to get my car serviced on at DeKalb Tire. It was suppose to take 90 minutes but took 3 hours. Joe and I went to lunch at Jason's Deli then went over to Home Depot to get some more grass seed, Weed and Feed, and some liquid weed killer to attack chickweed. Joe dropped me off at DeKalb Tire thinking my car would be ready in a few minutes but there I sat for another 90 minutes. At least Joe was back home so he could rest. Joe's truck was not in the driveway when I got home. He sent me a text message that he was walking the track in Lilburn which he walked around three times. Wow! He really is feeling better and getting his strength back. The good thing is that he did it on his own without me. Being home is working its healing powers.

The rest of the afternoon I worked on the lawn by putting fescue seed in some of the barren spots. The spreader was used to spread the Weed and Feed into grass areas to rid off the weeds that still were there. I used the liquid weed killer with the hose to hopefully kill the chickweed in the areas where grass does not grow because of the shade.

My wonderful neighbors, Charlie and Nancy Lester, across the street delivered us a home cooked meal at 6PM. Joe and I enjoyed the meal of salad with Charlie's homemade family dressing recipe, lasagna, rolls, Italian Red Wine and ice cream on a stick. Joe was crazy about the salad and had two bowls of it. He did pretty good on the lasagna by eating one and half servings. Max also got a serving after it cooled down. I was so tired from doing the lawn that it was such a blessing to have dinner served to us. Thank you to the Lesters.

Time to lay back and take it easy.

Ciao!